Liu Qingyi is the leading figure in Chinese women's breakdancing.
On the evening of May 18, with the opening of the Olympic Qualification Series in Shanghai, the audience also felt the charm of youth and vitality of this new Olympic sport.
Although Shang Xiaoyu and Zhang Xinjie regretted stopping in the preliminaries, on the last day of the competition on the 19th, Qi Xiangyu, who broke into the top 16 of men's breaking, and Zeng Yingying and Zheng Ziyan, who advanced to the top 16 of women's breaking, will represent Chinese breaking to the finals.
Back in 2019, the Paris Organising Committee announced that it would propose breaking as a sport at the Paris Olympics, which attracted attention.
How does a dance compete in sports? Will breakdancing, which originally belonged to the art of dance, become like gymnastics and other scoring events? This is a suspicion that many people have had.
Now, as the day of breakdancing at the Paris Olympics draws closer, the controversy of the past seems to be subsiding. Between "rigor" and "individuality", breakdancing is looking for an optimal balance.
Breaking didn't turn into gymnastics
When the news of breaking was first announced, many in the industry were worried that the rigor of sports competition would affect the genre's pursuit of individuality.
In 2019, British choreographer Marceau Revere said in an interview, "Some people will worry that this dance will become too 'competitive' and lose a lot of raw things." The domestic industry has similar concerns.
"The most fearful thing is that young people in the future will go to practice competitive break dancing, and then come out and become exactly the same, which is not art." Previously, Wang Han, a well-known dancer in China, said frankly in an interview with a reporter from The Paper (www.thepaper.cn).
However, fortunately, in the process of breaking dancing stepping onto the sports stage, the balance between "competitiveness" and "artistry" was still maintained.
According to the WDSF breaking international referee Wang Shenjiong (Danny) told The Paper reporter, the current breaking competition has five scoring criteria: technique, vocabulary (movement diversity), creativity (originality), execution (completion), and musicality. In general, it not only reflects the player's ability to complete the action, but also pays attention to the imagination of the action connection choreography and development.
Wang Shenjiong and Wang Yibo.
At the same time, the improvisation ability of the contestants is also tested because the music during the competition is not prepared by the contestants in advance but provided on the spot, which is also a major feature of the breaking event, showing the artistic character and expression of different contestants.
Wang Shenjiong
Wang Shenjiong bluntly said that in order to win after breaking on the sports stage, there will inevitably be some changes. "Since there is a large movement library composed of various basic actions, it is inevitable that prescribed actions will be formed. You can't go against the standard of basic movements and do what you consider to be 'breakdancing'. When players are competing, they will also complete some actions in order to ensure that they are not deducted points. As a culture, breaking pursues one's own ideas and self-expression, but competitive sports is about doing what is best for oneself within the limits of the rules. ”
There is more than one way to enter the Olympic Games
As for the future development of break dancing after entering the sports circle, Wang Shenjiong believes that it is necessary to strike a balance between "art, sports, and adventure". "If you want to develop more difficult skills, it means more and more danger – just like competitive gymnastics. Of course, we still want it to make people happy and enjoy the process, rather than just doing something risky from the beginning just to complete a difficult move. Wang Shenjiong said that in the future, break dancing "will have many different development directions". When communicating with the surging news reporter, the director of the hip-hop label CASTER, Stone, also had a similar opinion.
He said that when the outside world first gave the identity of an athlete to a break dancer, there was also resistance to it. But in fact, in his opinion, there is no essential conflict between the two titles. "It seems that this is a conflict between 'freedom' and 'self-discipline'. Because when it comes to athletes, the first thing that comes to mind is self-discipline, and they need to work hard to get results, while hip-hop dance is often more rebellious and self-explanatory. But as the old saying goes, there is self-discipline to be free. For the things you like, you must continue to study and keep paying. On the one hand, the pursuit of the breadth of artistic creation, on the other hand, the pursuit of the height of competition, both of which are ways to achieve self-realization. ”
Shi believes that after breaking has entered the Olympic Games, Asian Games, National Games and other sports events, the help brought to the promotion of the project cannot be denied, and the official investment and the improvement of social recognition are all important driving forces for breaking to expand its foundation.
And many dancers have indeed been inspired by breaking into the Olympics and have set the goal of continuing to hone their dance skills. In an interview with The Paper, 14-year-old dancer Li Houhua, who has won many international youth championships, said, "I will continue to work hard with this dream, and I hope to have the opportunity to stand on the Olympic stage in the future to win glory for the country." ”
In the eyes of the stone, competitive players, dancers, dance teachers, ordinary enthusiasts...... Like many other arts or sports, breakdancing can accommodate and satisfy people with different demands and pursuits. "Breaking is different in everyone's eyes. Athletes pursue competitive heights, teachers do a good job in dance teaching, enthusiasts find confidence and happiness through dancing, and carry forward their individuality to relieve stress...... I hope that in all aspects of spiritual, technical and artistic aspects, break dancing can play a positive role in helping the public. ”